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Installing operating system troubles

I've just bought a great barebones (no harddrive or op sys) quad core computer on Ebay and can't install windows xp pro from the cd/dvd player
I have changed to cd first start up device in the BIOS menu but when it starts it goes straight to the 'Start Windows Normally' page.
Have I missed something?
Is there another way of booting from the cd/dvd player.
Has the previous owner used a setting which stops something happening?
Any suggestions would be very welcome. Thanks.

Sounds to me like there is indeed a hard drive installed, 'Start Windows Normally' appears on Windows F8 advanced menu page, why not try one of them and see what happens. Double check your BIOS settings or hit the F key which brings up the boot menu, sometimes F8 or F12.

Many thanks for the above.
I should have said that I had fitted a hard drive.
The computer recognises the cd player in BIOS.
I will try Fruitbat's suggestion but I don't think it will run windows without the hard drive in place.
I have installed op systems many times previously. This is the first time I have not received the message: Press any key to boot from CD.
I messed around for hours yesterday, changing CD players, harddrives etc. I even installed a Floppy drive and that works ok as a first device when selected.
Thanks again.
Al

Newuser, have you previously had success using that Win XP CD? If you haven't and it's not an original Microsoft CD then it's possible that the CD you've got isn't bootable - this usually happens when someone makes a disk copy by simply copying across all the files and folders. When that happens the disk will have a all the files on it but it won't be able to start a PC.

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